Mumbai : An All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) MLA was suspended from the Maharashtra state assembly on Wednesday for making “disdainful comments” about India after he declined to say “Bharat Mata ki Jai”.
The decision to suspend Waris Pathan – AIMIM MLA from Byculla in Mumbai – for “showing disrespect to house” was passed by all parties on the assembly.
It came three days after AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi said he won’t chant “Bharat Mata ki Jai” as it wasn’t made mandatory by the Constitution.
“I don’t chant that slogan. What are you going to do, Bhagwat sahib. I won’t utter that (slogan) even if you put a knife to my throat,” Owaisi said, throwing a challenge to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s chief Mohan Bhagwat.
“Nowhere in the Constitution it says that one should say: Bharat Mata ki Jai.”
